SouLimit! BPM
by jaokolad
Summary: Slight AU Mangaverse. Maka never would have guessed blackmail would have lead her here. On this dance platform, she'd take on a new personality and try a new thing if it meant understanding music -and Soul- just a little better. DDR and Soul Eater, SoMa
1. Round 1, Song 1

**A/N:** Hey everyone! I hope you enjoy this lighthearted fic! It's about a topic that's dear to me: Music! Look to my profile for all your reference and song link needs, especially those of you who are unfamiliar with Dance Dance Revolution. This fic will center mostly on Soul and Maka and their relationship, their challenges and their identities and how that changes as one goes through adolescence and such. It'll touch on music and what it means as well. I hope you guys enjoy it!

**Note About the Setting in the Canon:** For BPM, you can consider this slightly AU. It takes place in the Manga canon after the Baba Yaga arc with Arachne, but ignores Noah. So Kid's actually around and apart of the Spartoi. Let's start!

**SouLimit! B.*.P.*.M ~ Chapter 1**

It was no use. They were just from different worlds. Maka sighed and let the pen fall from her hand as Stein lectured about how understanding helped facilitate better resonance. All the other theory they learned in class she understood and was able to put into practice, but this. _This,_ she just couldn't get around. When it came down to it, Maka couldn't really understand Soul. First off, he was a guy and guys were naturally irrational testosterone driven creatures that worked on ego and not logic. Second, Soul was the king of mixed signals. One moment he'd do something surprisingly sweet and in the same motion do something rude or embarrassing.

...and then there was music...

Even if his past was a bit of a sore subject for him, music was still key in Soul's life. She could recall dozens of times when it'd had an influence over his mood. Soul could return home from a mission or school upset, disappear into his room, turn on his music ,and then leave his room calm moments later. She didn't have many things that could do the same for her. Sometimes a novel would if it was _really good_, but most of the time her thoughts would distract her from the story. Besides, it didn't make any sense! How could electronically or otherwise produced sounds arranged in a mathematical way do anything but cover silence? How could it actually mean anything? The idea was silly. But still, Soul could find the meaning of the universe in a commercial jingle.

It wasn't as if Maka hadn't tried either. Every book the library had on music, she had read. Every article on his favorite musicians that the internet had to offer, she had poured over. She even watched the Behind the Music documentaries on TV, but in the end it was all just a melody, just noises arranged in a pleasing way. It frustrated her more than she could stand. Music was a road block in her understanding of him and therefore a road block in the way of her becoming a better meister. _Any other reason was irrelevant._

Maka glanced to her left to see that Soul wasn't paying any attention what so ever. Instead, he was busy balancing a pencil on the bridge of his nose with his feet propped up on top of the notebook Maka had bought for him to take notes in. Black Star, who had decided to sit next to him, was doing the same; the both of them were probably in the midst of some sort of lame contest.

As if his slacking wasn't annoying enough, Maka could sense the other girls in the room glancing at him. They were whispering, gossiping, and coveting the weapon she had put so much effort into. Meh, those girls were only interested because she had finished the hard part. There had been a few times she had heard girls swooning over his looks, but it wasn't unusual for the girls here to be pretty desperate. They'd have to be desperate to think that his unkempt head of hair and lazy, droopy eyes were cute in any way, right? Not to mention he drooled far more than anyone his age should, he didn't know how to fold his shirts right, and God save them if he actually ever woke up on time. How could any of that be attractive? Maka deserved a medal just for putting up with it.

As soon as the lecture was over, Ox turned and adjusted his glasses lto look up at Maka. "Good luck on the test coming up next week." And that grin showed, that crap-eating-smirk of his that marked his challenge. God, how Maka couldn't stand that expression. The hours spent studying were always worth it just to wipe it off of his face.

Maka leaned forward with a determined but evil grin on her face. "I don't _need_ luck."

And then, just like that, he had _the nerve_ to turn his attention away from her, as if their customary academic rivalry wasn't worth a comeback! To add salt to the wound, the new object of his attention was the two slackers to her left.

"_It _arrived at the arcade yesterday." Ox's geek fetishes were expensive, so he took up the geekiest job out there: quarter jockey at the Death City arcade after school. Maka at least had to respect his folks for making him go out and waste his own money. Unfortunately, Soul and Black Star occasionally went and wasted their money there too. Instantly, the dummy-duo sat up, pencils forgotten, as if Ox had just told them the news of the century.

"You really mean it?" Soul asked, eyes wide as if it were Christmas time.

"Finally!" Black Star cheered, standing and putting one foot up on the writing ledge. "Now everyone will truly know how godly I truly am!"

"No way, you're in my territory!" Soul shouted, standing as well with a proud thumb pointed to his own chest.

Maka rested her cheek in her hand, feeling a headache coming on. "What are you two idiots talking about?"

"You wouldn't understand." Soul dismissed. Bingo! An hour and a half of frustration was let out in an instantaneous Maka-chop. Soul sat down in his seat, holding his head.

"Lemme ask again," Maka put her book away. "What are you three going on about?"

"The stage that will proclaim my godliness to all who enter the arcade!" She ignored Black Star's mindless chatter and turned to Ox.

"DDR Omnimix. Only the newest and best version out there." Ox boasted as if he had personally crafted the machine they were talking about. Not that it mattered, he might as well have been speaking Latin, at least then she would have gotten _some_ of what he just said.

"It's a game where you step on buttons to music." Soul finally explained, removing his hands from his wild white hair. "Like I said, you won't get it, so don't worry about it."

Maka clenched her fists. It burned her up to feel left out of things, but he was right. She probably wouldn't get it, like it, or deem it worthwhile. "Whatever, just don't stay out all night. You have to catch up on your studying. It's so embarrassing when you score so low on tests. It looks bad on me."

"Sorry I'm such a disappointment." Soul stood and stuffed his hands into his white jacket. "C'mon, Black Star. I've been lookin' forward to kickin' your butt in this game for a while."

As Soul walked with Black Star through the hall, his mind drifted back to Maka. If understanding facilitated better resonance, then it seemed that it was amazing that they worked at all. Her words could sting so quickly and her doubt in him showed so easily that he wondered why she'd still want to stay together in their partnership. He annoyed her, burdened her, embarrassed her and Maka wasn't shy about letting him know.

What did they have in common, really? Besides their desire to work for Shibusen, what did they share? A home? A partnership? How far did those things truly stretch when there was little else? There was a connection between them that resounded so strongly when they were in danger, but in the days in between, that resonance was almost mute. They were worlds apart...What Soul wouldn't give to have just one meaningful, personal thing to share with her.

Maka sighed as she walked back towards the apartment. Naturally, Tsubaki went to the arcade with Black Star, Soul, Ox, Kim and the others. The only one not sucked into the hype around the stupid machine was Kid, and even Liz and Patty had gone to check it out. Unfortunately, Death Mansion was in the other direction, so the walk home was quiet and a little lonely. Stupid Soul. Stupid arcade. Whatever, maybe now she could get to the end of that book she had started, and do her laundry without worrying about her clothes getting mixed up with his. That's right, she wouldn't let this get her down! This was a golden opportunity to do whatever she wanted without him getting in her way!

Happily, Maka grabbed the knob of her apartment door only to feel that it wouldn't give. It twisted just a bit but refused to turn. No, no this wasn't happening. The walk home was long and it was over 97 degrees outside. Maka shuffled through her pockets, her bag, everything she was carrying, only to remember that Soul had rushed back to get the notebook he didn't even use and must still have the key.

"Aurgh! I'm gunna kick his-!"

The trip to the arcade was long, it was hot, she had homework and studying to worry about, and the longer it took to get to the arcade, the less time she'd get to herself. Now Maka would need a shower when she got back. The sound of music echoed from just down the street. There was a crowd of people smashed into the modest sized establishment, gathered around one spot where lights flashed and hyper techno music was playing. When she had entered, a song had begun and by time she wiggled through the jumble of people, the next song had started. At the edge of the ring of people Maka stared in shock.

It wasn't the machine that had caught her off guard, which would have been reasonable since it was taller than her, with massive speakers, a glowing neon logo display and a large screen with pink, green and blue neon lights blinking with the pounding bass. It wasn't the music either, the techno mixed with rap lyrics.

"_Could it be that you wanna be more like me? No shame, I bring pain for the year 2g. Now we gonna turn this party out! Put your hands in the air move em all around." _The machine blared the words out.

No, it was _him_. Soul's jacket and tie were left on the red bar at the back of the game's platform, his white button up shirt was open with a deep red shirt underneath that was tight enough to be slim and thin enough to wear under clothes, and it rolled up his torso a bit from his movements. His belt was doing all it could to keep his pants hung on hips that moved in ways she hadn't seen.

"_Can you feel the beat down in your soul? Don't fight the difference just let it go!"_

The screen, if Maka was able to look away to it, was a flurry of arrows, the word Perfect on Soul's side of the screen had the number 234 and climbed wildly. Suddenly he dropped to his knee to hit a combination of arrows as the crowd cheered, and effortlessly, Soul stood and spun, the combo numbers still rising. He was smooth. He was _cool._ Her face was hot, there were so many people. How? Was that even him? What had she come here for again…?

"_4, 3, 2, 1, let's count it down! Wanna see you move, let me hear that sound!"_

She was shocked out of her haze when Kim put a hand on her shoulder and leaned in close enough to shout "Never thought I'd see you here."

"Soul's got the key to our apartment." She struggled to shout over the music. It was then that Maka kind of noticed that Black Star was on the other player part of the platform, bouncing around with much less effort than Soul. Not that she paid the loud mouthed ninja any mind. Even if Soul had to try more he looked _so much better_ doing it.

"Soul's really good." Kim smiled. "You're going to let him come over more often right? He'll bring lots of people in to watch and spend money which will help the arcade a lot!"

Maka didn't reply, still transfixed with watching Soul. The crowd around her was moving to the music as well, tapping their feet, patting the sides of their legs, or all out dancing if they had the room. They were all sharing in the experience, living vicariously through the two dancers or perhaps just enjoying the spectacle. Everyone involved was happy and the beat of the music pulsated dully through all the souls present. Was this what music was about? Before Maka could contemplate it more, the song had ended.

"You're amazing!" the machine cheered. "Come back and show me your moves again!"

"You did your best, but it wasn't enough." Black Star patted Soul's back. "Don't be mad, no one expected that you'd be able to beat someone as great as me!"

The screen showed the score, Black Star's higher by a mere 10,000 points. "You just got lucky." Soul said as he grabbed his things from the bar and allowed the next people to take their turn. "I haven't played in years."

"What's that? Excuses?" His friend held his hand cupped over his ear. "Do I hear a mortal crying in the blinding light of my halo?" He turned to see Soul's face but grew annoyed when Soul was looking at the crowd. "Hey don't ignore your betters!"

"I thought I…never mind." It had to have been his mind playing tricks on him, but Soul could have sworn he had seen two blond pigtails, white and blue disappearing into the crowd. But there was no way that Maka would ever be here. Besides, if she had seen him up there, she'd surely laugh. Maybe she'd berate him for wasting a good dollar on music he could dance to for free, or for spending time here that he could be using studying. He shook his head, following Black Star out of the arcade. It was strange but Soul almost wished she'd have seen...

It had been a close call, too close. Hunched up inside of a racing game, Maka had just barely managed to escape the crowd before Soul had noticed her. It was hard to tell if it was the adrenalin of escaping or his dancing that was causing her heart to race like this. What on earth had come over her? This was Soul, _Soul,_ her dopey, lazy, sloppy partner! Just because he could swing his hips or dip like that, didn't change anything!

"Hey Maka," Ox leaned over the back of the racing game's chair. "Funny seeing you here."

Alright, today couldn't get worse. Maka swallowed and let her confusion at her own emotions turn into annoyance for Ox. "I'm allowed to be here if I want to, aren't I?"

"Have I ever shown you my new iphone?" From his pocket, Ox pulled out the slick, small device. "It does all kinds of things. I can make calls, play games-"

Maka began to get up "I'm very busy, why don't you show your toy to Kim?"

"It also lets me post videos to the internet." And before Maka could get up all of the way, Ox shoved the phone into Maka's face. There on the display was a close up of Maka's face just moments ago with Soul expertly in the shot as well. Anyone who would see it would have no trouble figuring out just who she was staring at, slack jawed and red-cheeked. Instantly, Maka tried to grab at the phone but Ox quickly jerked it back.

"Give me that, or I swear I'll-"

"Don't worry I won't post it." His laughter still curled Maka's hands into fists. "But only if you do something for me."

Oh what Maka would do to be able to grab his shirt and just pummel him into bits, but if she made a scene, there'd be no way to deny she had ever been here. Not to mention, if she did kick his butt, Ox would most likely tell everyone anyway. With a deep sigh, Maka crossed her arms.

"I can't believe you're blackmailing me. What? Do you want me to take a dive on the test?"

Ox gasped, hand on his chest. "I'd never ask something so low." The grin that followed showed he had something much more sinister in mind. "Besides, I don't need to blackmail to beat you academically."

"Then spit it out already! I've got things to do!" Like beat Soul home somehow...

"There's a bunch of chores here at the arcade that I just hate doing that takes time away from my studying. Come by every night after closing and do them for me until the test and then I'll be glad to erase this funny video."

Maka's mouth went dry at that. "What kind of chores?"

Ox tapped his chin as if giving it some thought before holding up a finger for each chore. "Cleaning the bathrooms, wiping down the machines, taking out the trash and vacuuming."

"And when am I supposed to come over?" Please don't say seven, please, please don't say-

"Around seven."

Damnit! That was her study time! Maka stood, hands still clenched into fists. "Fine, but if that thing is leaked, I swear you'll need Kim to heal all the bones in your body, got it?"

"I do have morals. I keep me word." Ox put his phone safely back into his pocket. "See you at seven."

"Whatever." Maka pushed past him and rushed for the door, thankfully avoiding the attention of her other friends that were there. It would be impossible to beat Soul back to the apartment now. She'd need an excuse as to why she was getting there after him...

Soul had been home for maybe fifteen minutes when he heard the door open. There stood Maka, drenched in sweat from the hot Nevada sun, arms full of groceries. He rushed up from the couch to take a few of the bags.

"If we needed groceries we could have taken the bike." What? No 'thank you, Maka?' No 'that must have been hard to carry, it sure was nice of you?'

"Oh cool! You got more Pop Tarts." Soul rummaged through the two bags he had taken out of her five. What a jerk! He probably didn't even realize that he had kept the keys and she would have been locked out anyway.

How in the world could she have reacted like that in the arcade to someone more interested in Pop Tarts than her? Maka took a deep breath and put on a passive aggressive unaffected expression as she carried her three bags into the kitchen as well.

"I'm going to the library to study at 7." A lie, of course, not that he seemed to catch it. Soul hardly looked up from the new food at her news.

"Ok have fun," was all he offered in response.

"You should study tonight too."

"Ok. Yes! You got my favorite soup!" He immediately took his can of Chunky Soup over to the cupboard for a bowl. The groceries weren't even put up all the way before he was intent on eating! Maka sighed in annoyance.

"I'm going to go take a shower."

"Mmhmm." Soul popped the top of the can, not even glancing back at her. Maka left the kitchen at that. If he was so interested in the food, let him put the groceries away.

"Hey Maka, do you want..." Soul turned to see she had left already, so he put the bowl into the microwave and pressed the buttons, trying to shove his growing worry aside. She had thought to get his favorites and carried them home, but she seemed so desperate to put space between the two of them. Was it a gesture of kindness? Was it just an ordinary chore that she did out of obligation?

Maybe he should offer to come with her to the library. No...Maka didn't like to be bothered and it was pretty likely that he'd end up irritating her. He must have done something wrong to make her upset. Something nice would have to be done to keep the peace, to maintain their partnership.

With soup in hand, Soul headed to his room to relax a little before studying. If he scored low again... Soul would do most anything to keep from being called an embarrassment by her. Disappointment, humiliation and expectation tended to remind him of home and that was the last place Soul wanted to be. Those feelings were the last ones he'd ever want to feel when thinking of Maka.

Ox waited at the door of the arcade, eyeing his digital watch. Sure enough, Maka walked up the street at 6:55, reaching the door at exactly 7:00. She took out the trash first, doing her very best to ignore Ox as he sat at the main counter of the arcade, studying his little nerdy heart out as she toiled. The bathrooms thankfully weren't that bad and didn't take much time. Vacuuming took a ridiculous amount of effort since by time the arcade closed there were tickets, popcorn and other things on the carpet, and there were so many machines to weave in and out of. She had to switch outlets maybe ten times before the floor was finished. All that was left was wiping down the machines. Maka started in the far corner and worked her way across the floor, leaving the newest machine for last.

During the spectacle that afternoon, Maka hadn't really looked at the machine itself. This blasted thing was the cause of her troubles now. The whole thing seemed a bit silly really. How could anyone find a game like this fun? It took so much room, and the neon lights were obnoxious even if at this moment the machine was just quietly playing its demo songs. Oh well, the damage was done. With a deep breath, Maka stepped onto the platform and watched how the arrows she stood on glowed. The machine returned to its title screen at her presence on it's floor.

"Dance Dance Revolution Omnimix! Show us your moves!"

"How annoying." Maka frowned before running the damp cloth over the game's display. But her hand slowed as the arrows scrolled just under the cloth. Despite her mixed opinions on Soul, and her continued confusion at her earlier reaction, what she had felt shared in the crowd had been real and unmistakable. There had been a connection there in the mass and it began here, on this platform he had danced on, these arrows he had followed.

The softness at these thoughts made her nervous and Maka quickly tried to think of something negative, like how illogical the whole thing seemed, or how strange that they could play any game that had to do with arrows after dealing with Medusa.

"You know, you might like this game." Ox said, leaning against the game's back support bar and Maka jumped, dropping her cloth.

"Don't be ridiculous." She scolded, frowning at Ox. He had done that on purpose just to see her jump, as if wasting her time like this wasn't bad enough.

"No, I really mean it." He moved onto the platform next to her and quickly fed the machine four quarters. It boomed loudly and Maka quickly jumped from the platform as if being on it on start-up would force her to participate. Ox just laughed.

"I know it looks like it's a game about music, but it's not. It's more like whack-a-mole than dancing." After some quick menu selections, Ox selected the beginner difficulty. "First, there's BPM or beats per minute." He pointed at the numbers under the song's title on the wheel of strange songs to choose from.

"The more beats per minute there are, the faster the tempo will be. It's all math." He scrolled through the songs until he landed on one titled 'Look to the Sky'. "This one's 140 bmp, which is pretty average." And then Ox selected the song.

"The game places the arrows on a grid according to the beats per minute. The rest is in counting and your reactions." The arrows were few and far between on the beginner setting, nothing like the storm that had appeared on Soul and Black Star's game. Ox counted out loud in sets of four and the arrows arrived in predictable manners. A step forward, a step to the side, a jump and repeat.

Maka watched, shocked. It truly was just math and reaction. There wasn't any dancing involved at all! No art required! It was so easy, she'd be able to do it no problem, right? She did have incredible reaction skills and learning a game like this would maybe even help improve her coordination. It was logical, based in numbers and suddenly seemed much more ordinary and a lot less intimidating.

The trance song soon ended and Ox stepped aside. "Wanna give it a shot?"

"Fine, but only if you keep you phone off and somewhere else. I don't want anyone to know I've touched this thing." Maka wouldn't readily say it, but her pride simply wouldn't let her admit to anyone that she was a beginner at anything, and there was a good chance she was going to fail pretty bad at this. Ox took out his phone and put it down on a nearby machine.

"I don't know these songs, so pick something easy." It was incredibly hard not to let her nervousness show through. Ox used the arrow buttons under the screen, searching for just the right song. In the end, he chose 'Pink Rose.' A beginner song at just 146 bpm.

Maka missed the first two arrows so Ox pointed at the screen. "You need to step when they get right here."

"I've got it, move your finger." Maka said, trying her best to concentrate. The music was distracting. This wasn't dancing, Maka quickly reminded herself. She wasn't dancing, this was just whack-a-mole, it was just numbers. No one was watching, it was ok. The next two arrows she hit with the words Good showing on the screen.

"The closer you get to hitting them at the right time, the better the combo. You'll start getting greats and then per-"

"Quiet!" Couldn't he wait till after the song to explain? The next arrows were consistently good and Maka missed only her first jump. All others she was able to catch. It was awkward to say the least, but she was doing it! That was all that mattered. This game would be one less thing that was beyond her abilities! It was funny, but the more she concentrated on her movements and the timing, the more the music disappeared into the background. In the end she received a B for her efforts.

"Wow..." Ox just stared in disbelief at the screen. "I guess there's really nothing you can't do."

"Do I get another song?" Maka asked, turning from the screen.

"You wanna do it again?"

"I can't just settle for a B."

Ox just shook his head "Right, well you get one more song." The game returned to the song selection screen and Maka didn't hesitate to just reselect the song she had just tried. Without Ox's explanations and with her previous experience, Maka had a lot less trouble. It still looked kind of clumsy, but the goods were turning into greats. She even received one perfect on a jump. Maka held her breath at the end of the song. If she didn't get an A, she'd have to try again, then who knew how long she'd be stuck here.

"Wow! You're amazing!" The game shouted and Maka jumped for joy when the A showed.

"So does this mean you're going to come and play with Soul and the oth-" Ox had begun but stopped when Maka whipped around to look at him.

"No! No one can know."

"But you did a good job. I know I failed the first few times I tried." Ox rubbed his head.

"But Soul will make fun of me for being a beginner. He'll patronize me and I really don't want to deal with that."

He sighed. "Fine, if you say so."

Maka relaxed at that, grabbed her rag but stopping when the screen changed to a circle of letters. "Did I get an extra song or something?"

Ox turned his attention back to the screen. "No, since the machine is new, there's not a lot of top scores yet. You beat the default scores in the beginner difficulty for those songs. Now you get to put your name in."

Speaking of pride, it was hard for Maka not to claim credit when she had earned it, but she couldn't possibly leave her name on the game for all to see. After a little thought, she used the arrow buttons under the screen to enter a code name.

"B.P.M." But she couldn't just leave it at that. Maka wanted to let all of the boys who played know that a girl had left this score, so she added a heart at the end and entered it into the game's memory.

"Bpm?" Ox asked with a raised eyebrow.

"It's the logical part of the game, of course I'd name myself after it." DDR then played its booming credit song before displaying all of the top scores. It was easy to spot Soul's name there, as well 'GODBLKSTAR' and a few other names she hadn't recognized.

The competitive side of her hungered to overtake all their places. The vindictive side of her wanted to take this 'music' thing and conquer it just to see Soul's reaction. She wanted to pound it into the ground as a way of destroying the music roadblock in her understanding. This game could very well be the key to becoming an even better meister. It would validate her suspicions that music as something deep was just foolishness, and that she truly could conquer and control things in her life if she put her mind to it. Thanks to Ox's blackmailing, she'd have the perfect time to practice as well since the arcade was closed!

Maka turned and smiled at Ox. "I'll see you tomorrow." And hopped from the platform, humming.

When she got back to the apartment, Soul had done the dishes, even though it was her turn that night. That was strangely nice of him. Maybe she should make Soul a snack in case he was still up studying. In moments, she had made two sandwiches on separate plates and walked to his door, knocking twice.

"Soul?" His light was still on, but he didn't answer. Maka balanced one plate on the bend of her arm and carefully opened his door to find Soul asleep, face down in his text book. Her mouth suddenly went a little dry. He was strangely adorable-in a puppy way-when he slept, and she felt a tiny pang of guilt for being so annoyed with him that day. He truly had tried to study. Maka put the plates down before gently shaking his shoulder.

"Soul, you need to go to sleep in your bed."

Slowly he opened one eye, some white strands falling in front of it. Groggily he smiled. "Hey, welcome back."

A skip in her chest made Maka swallow. She quickly turned her back to him in fear that he might see the new color to her cheeks. "You're going to be sore in the morning if you sleep like that."

The sound of his chair moving allowed Maka a chance to exhale the breath she wasn't aware she was holding. Hastily, she grabbed her sandwich and headed to the door, not looking back to Soul before offering a quick "Goodnight" and shutting the door.

Once closed, Maka leaned back against his door. What in the world had that been about? The way his drowsy gaze fell upon her had caught her breath. The way his hair had fallen made her hand want to move and push it back with a gentle motion. His slightly parted lips, moist from his sleep-his kind words. _Welcome back_. It made Maka slightly dizzy.

This...this was ridiculous. Maka hurried to her room. Today had been long and stressful, and was playing tricks on her mind. That was all. Just aftershocks from that afternoon and her silly teenaged hormones running rampant. There was still studying to do and then school in the morning. Yet, after the studying was done sleep remained out of her reach. When Maka closed her eyes, there were just arrows and _him_.


	2. Round 1, Song 2

**SouLimit! B.*P.*M*~ Chapter Two**

This was getting out of hand. Soul rested his head back against the top of the couch. He had been sitting there, waiting for close to two hours, and was thankful when the sound of his cell phone broke the silence.

"Hey man, is she not home yet?" Black Star asked on the other end. Tiredly, Soul glanced at the DVD player and sighed at the time on its display. 11:30 pm.

"Nope. I checked the library earlier and they said she hasn't come in all week." That fact tasted awful in Soul's mouth. If she was in trouble, it would be hard to figure out where to start looking.

"Damn. What do you think she's been doing this whole time?"

"I have no idea, but whatever it is, she's been lying about it." What could Maka be up to that she'd have to keep it a secret from him? Did she not trust him?

"That sucks. I gotta go, I was just checking in to see if she wandered in yet."

"Yeah, thanks. I'll tell you more after that stupid test tomorrow." As soon as the call with Black Star had ended, Soul tried Maka's phone for the fifteenth time only to get her answering machine. Typical. If it were the other way around, he was sure to get a good whack and an earful of lecture as soon as he'd walk in the door. By the time Soul had resolved to go looking for Maka and had put on his jacket, the apartment door opened. There stood Maka with a pleased expression on her face.

"Hey I didn't think you'd still be up." She said, smile still in tact. Soul could only stare at her dumbfounded as Maka walked past him to the kitchen. "Did you make dinner?"

"Yeah, but you missed it. Where have you been? It's past 11 and we have that test tomorrow."

Maka bent over to peer into the fridge, finding the dinner he had put away for her. "I was at the library, remember? I just got wrapped up in what I was doing."

Plate in hand, Maka closed the door of the fridge but paused when she saw Soul leaning against the counter next to her. There wasn't any hint of amusement in his expression. What was up with that stern, disappointed gaze?

"No, where were you, really?" His tone matched his face. It felt strange, to be here. It was so rare for Maka to find herself in the position of the wrong. It was typically _her_ lips held in such a straight line, brow furrowed.

"I..." Maka swallowed. She hadn't expected him to go out and check up on her story and knew whatever she'd say now would be taken with a grain of salt. She had to choose her words carefully. "Ok, I didn't go to the library _today_."

"Or all week." She flinched at that and took her plate to the table, mind working overtime for a new, more believable lie. Soul sighed and pushed himself from the counter, following his retreating partner.

"You can tell me." Trapped in her lie and still unsure of her opinions of him, the closeness seemed to be choking away the air. "I'm your friend."

When he put his hand on her shoulder, Maka simply blurted out the first reckless, thoughtless, impossible thing that came to mind.

"I was out with a guy, ok?"

Her statement echoed in the air between them, off of the kitchen cabinets and tiled floor. Soul removed his hand as if her shoulder had burned him. So that was it. Maka let out a sigh of relief as he moved away from her, removing his jacket to put it up. However, the relief soon disappeared as she realized that that had to have been the stupidest lie ever. Who could she get to play her pretend boyfriend?

Technically, she _was_ with a guy, but it was just Ox and he had a girlfriend. It wasn't romantic! Maka had done her chores and then worked on putting her name on all of the beginner songs' top scores. Thank god Ox had trusted her with a key so that he could leave when it hit 8:30. It was so easy to lose track of time when she was concentrating.

"Who is he?" Soul asked from the other room and Maka looked at her food, suddenly not that hungry anymore.

"He goes to the general high school. You wouldn't know him."

Soul leaned on the kitchen entrance. "You can't even tell me his name?"

Maka had to play it cool. She had already told the lie, so she'd have to play it through. She straightened her back and opened the food Soul had prepared for her. "I don't want you to bug him or scare him off. He doesn't like sharp things so as soon as you open your mouth he might run away."

Soul felt foolish on all accounts. He had hoped that they could maybe share _one_ dinner this week, he had worried when she didn't come home, he had bought her lies about the library and had worked hard studying to please her. This last backhanded insult finished the deal. He turned from the kitchen and walked to the hallway.

A boyfriend huh? Soul shouldn't be too surprised. It made sense that she'd lie about the library to see whoever it was. It wasn't as though Maka shared much of anything personal with Soul anyway. It was a little sad to think that they'd need a constant danger to be close. This peacefulness was allowing these gaps to grow and grow. Now that he was a deathscythe there weren't any more goals to work towards together and they weren't coming together on a personal level. Honestly it hardly felt like they were more than roommates anymore.

Maka stared at her food. This wasn't the normal quick meal that Soul was famous for. No, he had put effort into it. Maybe it was because she vaguely remembered saying that she'd be home early today. Guilt washed over her and Maka pushed the plate away just enough to rest her elbows on the table so she could hold her forehead in her hands.

She could just tell him the truth, that she was spending her time at the arcade. No, he wouldn't believe her. She'd have to show him and then surley she'd be humiliated. Maka wasn't ready to give up her efforts on DDR, after all she was making such progress. But Soul had obviously worried about her if he had stayed up. He must have looked forward to sharing dinner with her if he had made such a nice plate. The damage was done. Besides...

It wasn't that he was doing it _for her_ exactly, right? No, He was just lonely in the apartment, that was all. Maybe he was just taking advantage of an opportunity to make her feel guilty, to make up for all of the times she had stayed up and he came in late for stupid reasons. It wasn't anything a nice breakfast couldn't fix. He'd eat and be content and head to school and forget all about today and her ridiculous lie. What would Soul care if she had a boyfriend anyway?

That morning, Soul didn't touch the breakfast Maka had gotten up early to prepare. He offered no jokes, he didn't speak to her at all, seeming lost in thought about something or another. Why was he acting so strange over one late night? Maka just couldn't figure it out. It would pass, though. Soul didn't hold grudges or stay angry for too long. Yes, by the time lunch would roll around he'd be his normal dopey self. Unfortunately, with Maka's mind on Soul's behavior and how she'd go about asking Ox if she could still come by after closing, she'd forgotten about the test.

It wasn't an F by any means, but when it was over, Maka felt ill at the thought of a B. If Soul wasn't acting like a baby she wouldn't have been so distracted and the minimal studying she had managed to do would have gotten her through. Now Ox might get his wish. Her fist clenched around her pencil at the thought, but only for a moment. She couldn't be mad at Ox, not when his sneaky schemes had just worked in her favor anyway.

A grin slipped over her lips as she remembered how great it was to beat those songs. It was incredible to take music, stomp it into the metal platform and show her dominance in three letters and a heart on the score board. Ox could have his one win on the test, she had a dozen wins on that machine. Now if only Soul would get over his pouting, then everything would be perfect.

Maka waited for Soul at their normal spot outside for lunch. She had decided that she'd apologize for lying to him and maybe apologize for being late coming home, but half way through the lunch period, he still hadn't shown up. It was strange, how this discord so easily killed her appetite. Eventually, Tsubaki came and sat next to her.

"Hello Maka." Tsubaki greeted, pleasant as ever, but Maka had a feeling this wasn't simply a chat by the jerkiness of the way Tsubaki had sat, how the chatter of the other students seemed to naturally fade into quiet.

"Hey Tsubaki, have you seen Soul?" That was obviously what she had come to talk about because Tsubaki had a way of fidgeting with her hands when she had something hard to say.

"Yes, I did."

"Well? Where'd he go? He's late for lunch."

Maka looked around to emphasize her question, but paused when Tsubaki answered: "Isn't that a little strange to say? I mean, after last night?"

She should have guessed that Soul would have gotten Black Star and consequently Tsubaki involved. "He called you guys about it?"

"Well, he was worried. We checked some of the places we know you go for him while he went to go and see if you were at the library. He _cares_ about you."

There was a softness in how Tsubaki had said that, one Maka wasn't exactly prepared or ready to read into. Instead of show the way her statement had made Maka somewhat nervous, she chose the defensive.

"So you've come to scold me?"

"No." Tsubaki shook her head before putting her hand on Maka's knee. "I just think you two need to sit down and talk. I'm worried."

"We're fine. One little argument's not going to change things between us." Maka forced a small laugh, but it didn't seem to put Tsubaki at ease. If anything, the look of concern just grew on her face.

"Soul is speaking to student records right now." The statement was so simple, a short sentence from a well meaning friend, but it was enough to steal the air from her lungs. Once her mind stopped reeling, Maka shook her head.

"W-what? Why would he need to speak to them?" The only reason anyone would go _there_ was if they were changing their address or looking to change their partner. 'Talking to student records' had the same rumor power as 'just taking a break' in a relationship or 'divorce' in a marriage. Shoddy, pathetic partnerships ended there. Soul had no place there, speaking to those people. That was what happened to other teams.

"I know you might think things are great, but Black Star shares with me what Soul shares with him. Please, _please_ sit down and talk to him." Maka put her lunch aside and stood, only for Tsubaki to catch Maka's wrist. "Don't go right now, you're emotional and you might end up saying something you don't mean."

"I have to go stop him. I gotta go-"

"Maka, you know it takes consent from both people to end a partnership. Nothing can be changed right now. Calm down and try to think about what you're going to say when you both get a chance to talk in private."

No, Tsubaki had to be mistaken, right? There was no way things were that bad. All the same, Maka sank back to her spot, eyes staring out at nothing. All this over a little lie? She hardly felt it when Tsubaki leaned over and hugged her.

"Do your best to listen, ok? I know everything will be ok."

Soul wasn't present for the last few classes of the day, so Maka waited patiently for him to come home on his own. She sat at the dining room table, a cup of coffee resting between her hands. Was this quiet anxiousness what he'd felt last night? If things did fall through, what would she do? Find a new weapon and start from scratch? No...it wouldn't be the same.

The wood in the living room creaked and Soul slipped in the door, hanging up his white jacket. What if he abandoned her? What if he had already made up his mind?

"Tsubaki told you, didn't she?" Soul's words were quiet and unsurprised when he entered the kitchen, hands in his pockets. Maka couldn't look up from her coffee.

"Yeah. I didn't know you were that upset."

He grabbed a chair and pulled it from the table, choosing to sit further from the table than normal. Further from her. "I really don't know what to tell you."

Maka flinched and silence followed until she finally managed a quiet "Sorry for lying to you about the library."

"It's not just the library, Maka. I just...I don't really feel that important to you anymore."

Wasn't he exaggerating? He was important, but so was what she was doing. Maka was working to become a better meister, it counted as a reasonable excuse, right? She was doing it for him, in part too, so she wasn't really wrong, was she? It was something she enjoyed, one of the few selfish indulgences she could claim!

"Of course you're important. You're my partner." With a bit of courage, Maka looked up to see his frown, his crossed arms, the disappointment in his eyes.

"You mean your _weapon_. I get that, but are we friends? Are we roommates? What are we?"

"We're..." Maka had to look back at her coffee to keep control of her voice. Her throat was tight, her heart raced, her mouth was dry. "We're friends _and_ roommates."

"When you lie, forget your promises and insult me all the time, it doesn't feel like it. Did you know I spent twelve hours total studying for that test? I sat here and worked so I 'wouldn't make you look bad' and all that time you were with some guy who, by the way, you won't let me meet. You didn't even apologize about lying or coming home late until you thought I was switching partners."

"So you're not really switching?" Maka glanced up to watch Soul sigh and scratch his head.

"No. I just went there so that Tsubaki would go and ask you to talk to me."

"Why didn't you come and ask to talk, yourself? I was worried you were leaving!" Maka should have known. The guilt and worry withdrew a bit and relief settled in.

"Because I didn't think you'd take it as seriously if _I_ asked you, which I think is kinda a shame."

Nope, guilt and worry came right back at that and Maka hunched her shoulders, her hands grasping her coffee mug a little tighter. He was right...

"I've messed up." The words stung Maka's tongue to say. "But I don't think switching is the best thing for either of us."

"I'm not leaving." But he had options. It was an unspoken statement they both felt in the air between. He was a deathscythe now, able to choose new posts to work at in any corner of the globe he may want. There were other meisters, other _girls_ that would love to wrap their hands around him.

Maka's mind drifted in the quiet to thoughts of her parents. It could be like that. Her father had had options and he had tested each one of them out. No. No! It wouldn't be like that! Maka had vowed to herself not to endure those pains. She'd become a meister to be better than what they had been, not fall into the same pitfalls! Fine, if Soul had options, she'd just have to try harder. When her sullen expression had turned into determination, Soul could only wonder what she was thinking of.

"From now on, I'll do my best not to take you for granted," Maka nodded sternly. "I'll even make it up to you. Let's have dinner out, my treat."

"I can't. I already made plans with Black Star." Mostly because he had assumed this would have gone much, much worse than it had. Wait, did Maka really admit that she had'd taken him for granted? He had managed to get through to her and she took it like a grown up? Soul couldn't help a relieved grin. "How about tomorrow? Your boyfriend won't mind?"

"Ah-" She had almost forgotten. "No, I'm sure he'll be alright with it."

"Cool. Tomorrow for sure, then."

Maka grinned at the sight of his own smile and relief finally had a chance to take over. For now, things were ok and she'd have to work harder to make sure they stayed ok. But...with promises of honesty and caring, how long could she keep up this boyfriend lie to cover her arrow-fixation? If Soul ever found out that she was still lying to him, could he still forgive her in the face of this promise? No, probably not. No, Maka would have to work twice as hard to keep everything under control.

* * *

Ox couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Are you serious?" He stood at the arcade door, and there was Maka at 7pm, just like always. They had finished their deal and he had deleted the video from his phone.

"Of course I'm serious. I have better things to do than walk a mile and half at night to come over here and joke with you. You let me keep practicing and I keep up with the chores and add a $15 a week keep-quiet bonus."

Maka was asking not only to do the things he hated, and was already paid to do, as well as add a $15 bonus to sweeten the deal? How could he say no? Ox took her hand for a shake "You drive a hard bargain."

Kim had decided to stay at the arcade to walk home with Ox this evening. She had known about their silly agreement and had seen it as harmless, going along with the vow of silence since she had seen Maka there that first day as well. When she saw Maka walk into the arcade, she could only giggle and shake her head. Maka quickly glanced back at Ox when she saw Kim. Had he planned something to embarrass her?

Eying him suspiciously, Maka said "Kim, I didn't expect to see you."

"I wanted to walk home with Ox, but I was also hoping I could play with you." Kim had said and Maka turned back to the pink haired witch at that. The idea of playing with anyone else on the game's small platform instantly made her want to fidget.

"Oh, well, I'm not that good yet."

"I don't know, I've seen the top scores and it seems every song has your name on it." Kim smiled and stepped closer.

"But that's just beginner's level. It's not anything really worth boasting about." Maka glanced at the Omnimix just a short distance away.

"Well, then let's try the light songs tonight. I'm still a beginner too." With that, Kim looped her arm with Maka's and began to lead her over to the machine.

"But I have to do the-"

"He can do it himself tonight."

"But, we made a deal." Ox whined just behind the girls.

"It'll give you something to do while I play with Maka." She smiled over her shoulder. Ox was powerless to that smile.

"Alright, but just for you."

Maka couldn't help a small laugh. Kim had him wrapped around her finger. It was silly how relationships did that to a person. Her thoughts were interrupted when they stepped onto the metal and acrylic dance floor and the machine welcomed them with its customary music.

It was strange, but trying the new difficulty with someone else was actually kind of nice. Maka might have struggled with the next difficulty, but she managed to score higher than Kim consistently. It was a nice ego cushion, and Kim didn't seem to mind at all. Kim had wanted to improve her friendship with Maka and sharing in her secret was a great way to do that. After all, who knew more about the importance and occasional necessity of secrets than a Shibusen witch?

That next night, Maka had to forego her trip to the arcade in order to have her make-up dinner with Soul. It was strangely pleasant, really. No accusations, no complaints or questions. They'd both decided to leave talk about school out of the meal, and without it, there wasn't much to talk about. He talked about what happened in the shows he watched, she talked about something she had read in the newspaper.

Eventually Soul ended up talking about his current struggles with a song called 'A' on the Omnimix and Maka had to hold her breath to keep from joining the conversation about her own troubles with freeze arrows. Those blasted green streaked arrows that would keep her foot captive on its button while the other foot had to move to hit the other buttons. They could easily turn a simple song into twister and if you lifted your foot before the freeze arrow ended, a huge chunk of your song bar would disappear. They were evil. Oh how she wished to lament about them to him as Soul went on about A's frantic tempo change and the long line of pivots that followed. It was so very hard to look bored.

But she was Maka, and as Maka she was _supposed_ to not like video games or music. If she showed any interest then surley he'd be like 'What's gotten into you? Giving up the bookworm life? You can't just jump into this kind of thing. Maybe you should stick with reading.' And if other kids at school found out, which they certainly would, she'd get those kinds of lines times a hundred. 'Look at the star pupil, what kind of meister can't even hit some arrows? How in the world did she survive all those battles? Oh, probably dumb luck.' Whatever! She didn't need to talk to Soul about the dumb video game, her scores spoke for her! Maka's anger at her imagined peers helped her look bored and annoyed with his topic, so Soul quickly stopped talking about the game he truly enjoyed and settled for the customary silence.

And that was how Maka had fallen into this mess. There was effort to give to school in maintaining her image and standings there. There was effort to give to her partnership with Soul. She tried to find one good thing to say about him each day, even if some days that was pretty hard to do. It seemed to go a long way in keeping him content. There was also effort to give to remembering the life story of her boyfriend who she now had to describe to all of her other friends when they found out. All the details of his fictional life, Maka had written down and memorized. And then there was effort to give to DDR. At the end of the day, Maka was exhausted from all of the effort given.

* * *

Stubbornly, this went on for _three months..._

* * *

"This place is a sausage fest." Black Star sighed, drying off his face and leaning against the back bar on the ever diligent DDR Omnimix. "I wish more girls played this."

"You mean you wish Tsubaki would play." Soul chuckled hitting the two center select buttons under the screen to initiate another round of two player.

"Can you blame me?" Black Star was already dopey at the thought of Tsubaki bouncing and _bouncing _around the game's dance floor.

"It's not just guys that play, there's that Bmp girl." Soul scrolled through the songs and Black Star rolled his eyes.

"Can we get through one game where you don't bring her up? I've asked everyone we know who plays and they say they've never seen any girl enter that name. It's probably some guy putting it as a joke."

"Everyone we know goes to school at the same time. If she goes to the general high school she might get out at a different time and-"

"You've gotten pretty damn desperate since Maka got a boyfriend." Soul just frowned at Black Star before hitting select on MaxX 300 SMMM, one he knew Black Star hated. "Dude, that's low. This is our last play before the arcade closes. We're going to be too tired to play the two other songs."

"Stop whining and just get ready."

In Dance Dance Revolution, there were certain songs made to be punishing in order to challenge those who had mastered all the other songs. There were the Paranoia mixes, a number of songs with the same over all sound with Paranoia in the title. These songs were hard for the fact that they lacked a real cohesive melody and was instead made up by chaotic sounds and random rhythms. Its odd combinations would be unsettling and it would take incredible concentration to read the pattern of the arrows and ignore the distracting off beat sounds from the song.

Then there were the MaxX mixes, often holding the very hardest challenges in the whole machine. These songs were typically set at incredibly high bpms and would cram more than 600 steps into the frantic 1:30 long song. To say MaxX 300 SMMM was a tough song was a gross understatement. In it were all the tricks that you could ever expect in a DDR song: time freezes where the arrows would stop all together, and then there were time changes where the tempo would suddenly slow down and the arrows would cluster into a fog, or speed up till they were a blur. There were jumps that would go right into snare-drum like rhythms of 1/32nd notes before switching back into jumps, double-steps where one foot would have to repetitively hit the same button again and again, quickly tiring those muscles. There were gallops where you would gallop from one arrow in a ba-BAH fashion. And then there were pivots.

Pivots were a trademark of any of the highest expert or oni level songs where one direction would come in a constant stream, but the perpendicular directions would alternate between, causing the dancer to pivot on the leg on the constant direction while swinging their other leg back and forth over the alternating arrows. The core abdominal muscles needed to swing the lower body as well as keep balance easily could invoke pain closely related to being kicked in the stomach and the wear on the constant leg could freeze muscles. Pivots were Soul's mortal enemy.

After a long stream of pivots, Soul's hand reached for the red bar at the end of the platform.

"Don't do it!" Black Star shouted, struggling to keep up with the song himself.

"But it hurts!" Soul's perfect steps began to fall to just greats with a few goods mixed in. His song bar was falling and his muscles were lagging under the weight of his body and the incredible speed the song demanded. If Soul didn't grab the bar, he'd fail.

"Don't punk out! You picked the song so finish it like a man!"

"I'm not going to fail!" Soul reached out again for the bar.

"If you do it, you gotta play a penalty game." Black Star shot him a sideways glance.

"Fine!" Resigned to his fate, Soul grabbed the bar behind him with both hands. It was considered cheating since leaning back on the back bar made the game exponentially easier. Half his body weight shifted from his burning legs to his back, shoulders and arms. It removed the task of balancing from his core muscles and left his legs free to hit the buttons in ways that would be nearly impossible if he were standing on them. It looked pathetically uncool, it was embarrassing and really really lame, especially with Black Star taking the punishment of the song on his feet. The song ended and both boys doubled over panting but Black Star quickly broke out into laughter.

"You need to train and then you'll get a godly body like mine. Until then you'll just be a bar hugging punk. You looked so pathetic."

"W..." Soul was still struggling to catch his breath. The game counted down, time running out to choose the next song but neither moved to make a selection. There was no way either of them could play anything after that. Soul shook his head. "Whatever. What's the penalty?"

"Hmm, I've got it!" Black Star sat down on the game's platform and pulled from his school bag a notebook and a pen. "You have to write a letter to your dream DDR girl and ask her out. When you're done, we'll tape it to the machine."

Soul just stared at him before wiping the sweat from his face with his discarded white button up shirt. "You're...you're joking right?"

"Nope! I'll dictate to you what to write, and you have to write everything I say, no changing it."

With a sigh, Soul sat down on his side of the platform. "Fine, let's just get this over with." He took the paper and pen from Black Star and waited in fear for his punishment. After just a little bit of thought, a evil grin spread over Black Star's face and he began.

"Dear Bpm, my name is Soul and I'm a pretty desperate and lonely guy-"

"I'm not writing that."

"So are you going to lie to your dream date before you even meet?" Soul could only grumble and Black Star continued. "and as a sad, lonely little man who can only find companionship in an arcade machine, I couldn't help but to notice your name on the machine. My handsome, amazing, godly friend thinks you're a man just as sad and lonely as me who enjoys putting a girl's name on the board to get some kind of weird kinky pleasure out of pretending to jump around in a-"

"Talk slower, I can't keep up with all your stupid." As if the humiliating words weren't bad enough, Soul's whole body was sore and his eyes stung from the sweat dripping into them.

"You can't even write fast enough for me!" Black Star laughed. "Let me know when you're ready to keep going and I'll keep coming up with your perfect love letter."

With each word, Soul was thinking of ways he'd get him back for this. "Alright, I'm ready for more stupid."

"In a frilly dress. I hope you're not really a man because then there's no real hope for me and my love life. If you're a girl, like I so desperately, desperately, _desperately_ wish you are, let's go on a date! I'll be here tomorrow afternoon around 3 and we can play some rounds of DDR which will be amazing for me since I've never played with anyone with boobs."

"God, I hate you."

"After we play, we'll go for a movie, my treat! If you don't come, I'll assume that you're a man and all my hopes of love and boobs will be crushed forever. I hope cupid will shoot a DDR arrow straight into your heart-for me! Yours forever, Soul. P.S. I'll provide the quarters. We'll dance to the rhythm of my heart on my dime!"

"What if someone finds this letter before she gets it?" Soul asked as he finished up with the last few ridiculous words.

Leaning back on his hands, Black Star couldn't help a huge smile. "Well if she does get out with the general high school kids, like you say she does, then anyone else who might find it won't know you anyways."

Soul tore the paper from the spiral and folded it, glaring at Black Star. "If this thing ends up scanned and put on the internet, I'll kill you."

He leaned over and patted Soul's back before standing. "You only have yourself to blame."

As Black Star packed his stuff up, Soul folded the letter and got up and walked over to the main counter where Ox was wiping off the counter top. There was no way in hell he was going to leave something this embarrassing taped to the machine where anyone could take it and read it.

"Hey, do you know the girl who plays DDR under the name BPM?" Ox hadn't seen Soul come up, so his voice surprised him and the nervousness remained at the mention of Maka's code name. If he let the cat out of the bag, Ox could only fathom the pain she'd unleash on him!

"I-uh-why would I know her? I can't watch the machine all the time, I have a job to do!"

"Well, tomorrow if you see a girl play and enter that name, can you give this to her and explain that I was forced to write it and I'm nothing like this in real life?"

"Y-yea, no problem, I'll make sure she gets it." Soul handed him the dreaded little piece of paper and turned to gather his things. Soon he and Black Star were gone and it was only then that Ox let out a long exhale.

He didn't need to read the letter to know that this was about to change up the whole game. It certainly didn't _stop_ him from reading it though.

* * *

A/N: I wanted to say something here but it's late and I'm not sure what to say other than, Maka's about to have her hands full~


	3. Round 1, Song 3

A/N: There are lyrics in this chapter but I wouldn't call it a song fic by any means. There's links in my profile to _all songs_ mentioned, so please go check them out! And oh, this is a long one..

**SouLimit! ~B.P.M~**

**Chapter Three**

This had to be some kind of joke, right? Over the trembling edge of the paper, Maka's wide green eyes looked to Ox who was doing all he could to keep from bursting out into another round of laughter. Kim peered over Maka's shoulder and Jackie and Havar could only guess as to what was going on. The last two had decided to come to the arcade that night to walk back with their meisters and Maka hadn't been too worried about them knowing. It wasn't as though they spoke to a lot of people about much of anything. The only ones she knew they talked to were Ox and Kim who already knew anyway.

If the words weren't in Soul's handwriting, Maka would have torn it up and thrown it out. She would have assumed it was some horrible joke, but no. That was definitely, undeniably his sloppy handwriting. And those were clearly not his words. They were most likely Black Star's idiotic rambling, which meant he'd be paying attention and that loud mouth would spread it everywhere: BPM was a guy. Just some loser pretending to be a girl for attention!

"So, how are you going to get yourself out of this?" Ox finally asked once he had caught his breath. "You've gotta fess up now."

The very thought made Maka's stomach turn. It wasn't even as though Soul would believe her if she came home with the letter in hand and told him straight out that it was her. He'd laugh. He'd joke at her expense and then go to the arcade and wait for BPM to show up. No, there had to be a way.

"I could go in disguise." The words had slipped out of her lips before Maka could fully contemplate what that meant. Another layer of lies, another effort to exert, another life to make up.

"You mean a wig?" Ox's amused tone broke her thoughts. "Good luck keeping that on while you jump around! And if you talk just a word he'll know."

Why did Ox have to be so-so annoying? Didn't he see that this was pretty stressful? Boys were always so insensitive! Whether or not it was a good idea, now Maka wanted to argue for it just to shut him up. With an angry frown, she clenched the letter, glaring at him.

"Well I can't not go! If I don't show up, Black Star's going to tell everyone that I'm just some loser boy who's-"

"You could tell the truth." Jackie spoke up. It had been too easy to put the pieces together and it bothered her someone as smart as Maka was stuck in the middle of something so stupid. Maka ignored her and Jackie didn't feel like repeating herself to someone who wasn't willing to listen.

"I would just need to show up and prove I'm a girl and then leave. It would only have to work for five, ten minutes tops."

"There might be a way." Kim nodded. All eyes there finally looked to the pink haired girl who had been strangely quiet over the whole thing.

"Kim, no." Jackie could see where this was going, but Kim flashed her a smile.

"It's fine. It'll be fun." That said, Kim looped her arm with Maka's and lead her to the girl's bathroom. What in the world could Kim have in mind that they'd-oh! Maka had nearly forgotten.

Kim was a witch. It was easy to forget when she was so nice and so far from the monsters they fought. By time they pressed past the girls' bathroom door, Maka felt a little anxious. It would mean magic, cast on her specificly.

"Will you be ok with this?" Kim asked once they came to a stop in front of the broad mirror. She didn't want to say it out right, but it wouldn't surprise her if someone like Maka would have reservations against spells.

"Yea, it's fine." Maka said with just the faintest hint of hesitation. She had gotten this far, the lie had grown into this, so there was no other way, right? She'd just need it for five minutes. Just. Just five minutes. Then she could go back to just having to maintain her imaginary boyfriend named Greg, her grades and partnership with Soul...no problem.

"This is a neutral spell, so you don't have to worry." Kim smiled brightly. The only way it would fall into the realm of the sway of power was in how it was used and Kim was certain that deep, deep down, the intentions were pure. Maka wanted to get to understand music more to be a better meister for Soul. Right? Right. This was just some weird round about way of doing it.

"I do it all the time." She continued and with a snap and a puff of smoke, Kim's raccoon tail reappeared. "Since you don't have any magical abilities, I'll have to enchant something of yours, that way you can change back and forth by putting it on and taking it off." She tapped her chin, looking Maka over. "It's got to be something Soul won't recognize since you'll have to wear it as BPM."

Maka looked herself over. Something he hadn't seen? Obviously she couldn't use her school uniform, and she didn't wear jewelery. The answer seemed to hit both girls at once and Maka blushed as Kim giggled.

"He hasn't seen your current pair of underwear, has he?"

"Of course not!"

"And there's no way he'll see them while you're BPM, right?"

"Why would he?" Maka's face was bright red and Kim couldn't help but to laugh.

"Then that's it. I'm going to need them." She put out her hand and Maka took a moment to weigh her options. She could risk that moron Black Star ruining the reputation she worked so hard to build for her code name, oh but all those nights spent spreading her name over the score board, the feeling of accomplishment! How could she just let him ruin it all? Maka could attempt to just come up with a disguise herself-no. That would only end in failure and Soul would find out and things would just blow up. This was the only way. With a sigh, Maka moved to the nearby stall and slipped out of her boots before removing her light blue panties with yellow lace trim and stepping out of the stall.

"These are cute." Kim grinned, holding them up to the mirror and tilting her head. There was even a tiny yellow bow on the front, top hem of the high cut panties.

"Can we please just do this?" Maka tugged at her own skirt hem, suddenly feeling oh so vulnerable.

"Washing them shouldn't do anything to the spell, just so you know." She teased just one last time before gently laying them down next to the sink.

Kim may have understated the size of this spell, for a few selfish reasons. This wouldn't be as easy as hiding a tail. This would call for a change of complexion, a change in body type, eye color, hair color and length. Maka's voice would have to change and if she could manage, Kim would need to include a sort of buffer that would help to cover or distort her wavelength to keep Soul from _feeling_ that it was her...should the two of them end up getting too close in Maka's 'ten minutes, tops.' It wasn't as though she'd have to wield Soul as BPM, and the buffer would be gone as soon as she changed back to Maka again, so there was no harm to it.

A deep breath in, Kim closed her eyes and held her hands out over the panties in question. "Raccoo Tanunucooncoo n Ponpon Ponkitanu Pon Pon Pon Tanunu." A small globe of pink light appeared from her hands and fell upon the blue cloth, popping as if it were a bubble. For a brief moment the little pair of panties glowed softly and once they returned to normal Kim lifted them up, stretched them twice for good measure and handed them back.

"There you go!"

Maka looked at them and then to Kim and then back to the underwear. So that was it? Just like that, she could be a different person? "When can I try them out?"

"Right now if you want, but your clothes might be a little tight."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Maka took the panties back and turned towards the bathroom stall.

"Well you can't look like you, so I included a few changes in your measurements."

Maka's hand paused on the stall door. A change in measurements? It was obvious what Kim had meant, but the idea both saddened and excited her. It saddened her a bit that surly a girl as flat chested and slim hipped as her could never be anyone but poor under-endowed Maka, but...the chance to be a girl with the things she had secretly noticed, secretly wanted on some degree was too good to brush aside. There was no point in over thinking it, after all this whole disguise deal was a one time thing. Maka quickly pushed into the stall and slipped back into the blue and yellow panties.

It tingled, starting at her hips and traveled upwards and downwards at once, flying over her skin. "Nn, Kim I-" She had began, but Maka put her hand over her lips at the change in her voice. It was so shocking to hear a foreign voice come from her throat. The words seemed naturally sweeter in tone, filled with innocence, as if she had never yelled, nor thought a dangerous or naughty thought.

"Are you ok, Maka?" Kim pressed her ear to the bathroom stall door.

"Y-yea, I'm fine." Silence followed after and Kim fidgeted a bit.

"Well come out and lemme see!"

Slowly, Maka pulled the door back and stepped out. Where plain, pale skin had been was now fresh, pink skin dotted generously with freckles. Where had once been big green eyes were now round blue ones, staring wide at the new image in the mirror. Her height had dropped an inch, her chest had grown half a cup and her hips ached in the restraint of her skirt, perhaps another size up. Slowly, she raised a hand to touch the long wavey tresses of red-brown hair that fell over her new chest and stopped at her mid back.

"Wow! You don't look like you at all!" Kim gasped, clapping happily at her own work. "Oh oh turn to the side!"

The cutest little bubble butt was where hardly any had been and Maka couldn't help but to brush a hand over the new territory. "I..I really don't know what to say."

"You're welcome." Kim giggled. "Oh! You're not going to be able to just show up in your Shibusen uniform or he'll go looking for BPM at school. Just come to the back door of the arcade and I'll have an outfit here for you to change into."

"Ok." Maka could have agreed to anything, she wasn't really listening. She was too busy trying to wrap her mind around the image in the mirror. Suddenly Kim burst into laughter and it made Maka blink and finally look over at her. "What?"

"Well, you obviously can't go home like that, so you're going to need to walk home without you-know-what on!"

Jackie had waited for Maka to leave and felt no sympathy for the conflicted and embarrassed expression the girl had held. Her attention was on Kim and the moment she slipped from the bathroom, Jackie took her wrist and lead her out the back door of the arcade.

"Jackie?" Kim quickly replaced her own disguise, hiding her tail away.

"After this one time, you need to do Maka a favor and take back the enchantment."

"I have a feeling she'll need it for a little longer than ten minutes and more than just once." Kim smiled but it faded quickly when Jackie continued to frown.

"This is destructive." It was a simple, un-sugarcoated statement that spoke volumes. Destructive...like other witches drawn to destruction. Kim crossed her arms at that and returned frown for frown.

"Maka is my friend and if she thinks this is best, I'm going to help her."

"And what about Soul? What do you think it's going to do to their relationship when he finds out he's been lead on? Sometimes you have to tell your friends when they're wrong, if they're really your friends."

"Are you saying that Maka's not really my friend?"

"No. What I'm trying to ask is did you give Maka that spell because you wanted her to be happy, or because you wanted to lend magic? If it's just for the sake of using something besides healing spells, does that still make you a good friend?"

Kim was silent at that, looking at the cobblestone alley underfoot. It had felt good to be the one Maka shared a secret with. It felt good to be the one to help, and it was so, so nice to offer a service other than healing. In this favor she got to share a part of who she was with someone new. Someone besides Jackie or Ox. Did it make her selfish? Did it make her greedy or a bad friend? Had she taken advantage of the situation for her own enjoyment?

"I...I don't know if what Maka is doing is right." Kim finally said, looking back up at Jackie with a sheepish expression. "But I'm going to support her in her choices. She and Soul have gone through a lot and I'm sure in the end things will work out."

Kim's words didn't seem to convince her in the least. "Do you think we'd be better partners if you never told me about your secret?" Jackie crossed her arms.

The question shocked Kim, a look of fear instantly spreading over her face at the thought.

"No! Of course not! I don't know what I'd do if I didn't have your support!"

Jackie put a hand on Kim's shoulder, feeling it relax from its hunched position. "Do you remember how scared you were that I wouldn't want to be your partner if I knew? What they're going through is a bit like that, but with something so much more petty. She's scared he'll hurt her, so she keeps pretending to be someone else. In the end, Maka can take the risk and be honest and really come closer to him, or she can keep running away. If you want to help her as a friend, help her understand that, ok?"

Kim took a deep breath and nodded. She wanted to be the fun friend...she wanted to keep playing with Maka. Once the music ended and Maka told the truth, Kim had a feeling the game would be over...

* * *

A date. _He had a date._ Soul plopped down on the couch once he reached the apartment, not surprised to see the place empty. Maka must be head over heels for this Greg guy because like clockwork she was gone. At first he hadn't pressed the issue, but one night when he demanded to come along and meet this guy, she had literally managed to knock him out with repetitive chops to the head. Another night he had tried to stalk her, but her stupid soul perception gave him away. Soul had been lucky to make it home in one piece.

He had asked around about this guy but no one he knew knew anything about him that Maka hadn't already vaguely explained. It was lame and it bothered Soul a lot that she wouldn't even let him see this new jerk, but whatever. Maka wasn't stupid and so far things seemed just fine. She didn't give him any reason to worry and if he kept trying to push it, he might end up putting pressure on their strained relationship. Of course the first night she comes back in tears, he'd hunt the guy down and destroy him. But for now, the apartment was his routinely from 7 till 11 with Maka off with Mr. Too-perfect-to-be-around-Soul. Well, you know what? Good for her. Soul had a date too.

He couldn't help a toothy smirk. Yea, Black Star was a loud mouthed ass at times and he could embarrass a guy without hardly trying, but. If this turned out and this girl was really a girl, if somehow, something happened, anything at all, it'd be worth it. He'd have to thank him.

Soul got up to take a shower and once out, he stopped to look himself over in the mirror. How long had it been since he had spent time with a girl that _wasn't_ Maka? One or two vague memories of formal parties and arranged dances came to mind, but that was it.

"God, he was right. I _am_ sad and desperate." With a sigh, Soul ran a hand over his face but stopped when it reached his chin. Was that stubble? It wouldn't be long before he'd have to shave all the time. He was a growing young man, after all. Who wouldn't want to date a guy as good looking as him? Towel still wrapped around his hips, Soul took a moment to strike a few poses. He admired his modest muscle build, poking his upper arm. It wasn't showy like Black Star, and certainly not as slim as Kid, occupying a happy medium. It read strong but still sensitive. What girl wouldn't like that? She wouldn't know what hit her.

It was after the third pose he stopped, eyes falling on the reflection of his scar. It had paled since he had first received it, but still it remained. Would a girl outside of Shibusen be able to understand what he had to do? Could he ask someone to wait at home while he went on dangerous missions? Could he ask her to understand as he lived with Maka?

Maka...somehow she found someone who must not mind. She found someone to share things with, someone she could enjoy. Some guy that must have some how earned her trust enough to earn her affection. A sudden ache of loneliness washed over Soul and it was hard to tell just what was causing it. Was it jealousy that she had someone, or was it that her guy was able to reach her in a way that Soul failed to, even after all these years? He must be a pretty amazing person, or maybe there was something that Soul lacked that he just couldn't see. What if BPM saw that same lack in him?

No, this was stupid. Soul left the bathroom and turned off the light. There wasn't even a guarantee that she'd show up or be a girl at all. It would be uncool to get his hopes up for nothing. He had just slipped into his room when Maka walked into the apartment, locking the door behind her. All she wanted to do was take a shower and put the day behind her.

The warm water did nothing to help sooth her headache, the pain not a result of the spell but of her thoughts. She watched the water run over her slim chest, rinsed soap from her narrow hips and later dried the water from her thin legs. Maka brushed the tangles from her wet, dull and pale blonde hair, staring blankly at her reflection.

In order to keep playing a game that made her feel better, Maka now had to pretend to be a girl who's body put her own to shame. After all, what boy would want such a strange girl? If her hair were shorter and she wore pants it would be easy to mistake her for a boy from behind. Her towel was able to wrap around her chest twice and leave enough to tuck in. Maka turned to the side and put her hands where she remembered her new body came to, feeling the air and sculpting the gaps between truth and magic.

How many times had she told herself that her appearance had no consequence on who she was? Just because a girl had certain assets didn't make her a better person... but still. Maka couldn't help but to feel like something was missing. If it were possible to separate the intellectual from the physical it would be better but sadly they had to occupy the same home. It was frustrating, how over the recent years she longed for an attention that didn't rely on her gpa. To be desired, to be noticed. Such foolish, primal wants...but no matter the grade, no matter the mantra of self assurance, that want remained. She just wanted to feel pretty. As Maka.

So, what was the problem? Why did she feel this awkward sadness when thinking about how she had looked as BPM? After all, what a great opportunity, right? No surgery needed, no more wishing, no need to wear false _parts_, not that she ever would. She'd get to try being someone different and try a new body to see if the curves actually made any sort of difference at all. What if Soul liked this new girl? She planned to just show up and say she had to go meet up with her friends or something and then leave.

No, this was stupid. Maka tightened her twice wrapped towel and left the bathroom, turning off the light as she went. Regardless of if he was happy to see her, she'd turn him down. It wasn't a date. It didn't make any sense to worry about the what ifs.

* * *

Soul had wanted to wait to tell Maka about his arranged date, since he was unsure how she would feel about him hanging out with another girl. When Black Star had blabbed about it first thing during their first period Maka had only shrugged.

"That's good. I hope you have fun." And offered Soul a small, supportive grin.

"That's it? Have fun?" He blinked.

"Yea. It'll probably do you some good to get out of the house and hang out with someone new. It's helped me a lot." Maka put her face back into her text book, hoping Soul would drop it at that.

"Thanks. I didn't think you'd take it so well. I really appreciate it." He sounded genuinely happy, patting her back before going back to talking to Black Star. He was happy? He actually wanted to do this stupid date? Boys were so...Maka shook her head, forcing her thoughts back to the text in hand.

After school, they parted ways. Maka had left with Kim and Jackie and once out of the boys' sight flew to the arcade. Soul and Black Star went the more direct route along the road, too distracted to notice the girls and their speedy exit.

"You're not planning on sticking around for the whole date, are you?" He glanced at Black Star as they walked.

"Nope. I'm just going to stick around to watch you stand there and get stood up. Or maybe _he'll_ just come out and confess his manhood to you. Who knows, he might still wanna go through with the date with you." Black Star only laughed, even when Soul punched his shoulder.

"Some great friend you are. I wonder if Kid needs a new best friend."

"Kid's got four best friends." Black Star held his hands out cupping imaginary boobs and Soul couldn't help but to laugh. "And you've just got me. It's not like Maka's got anything."

"Even if she did, they wouldn't be my friends, they'd be that Greg guy's."

Moving in front of Soul, Black Star walked backwards, one hand on his chin, the other on his bent elbow in thought. "Ain't it strange we've never seen him? Think she's really seeing a girl and she's too embarrassed to just come out with it?"

Soul raised an eyebrow. "You've been thinking about homosexuals a lot. Is there something you wanna tell me?" Black Star decided to be merciful and ignore his last statement, choosing to move next to him and wrap his arm around Soul's shoulder.

"No, I mean think about it. Doesn't it kinda seem like she's hiding something? Besides, we all know Maka hates men and you're the only guy she really trusts, so if she's not with you, then she's not with any guy."

"That doesn't make any sense." Soul shook his head. "You're guessing that there's no guy out there that's better than me."

He let Soul go. "Better for Maka than you? There isn't." Soul stared at Black Star and his friend patted Soul's shoulder. "I don't know a guy more willing to put up, pick up and stick up for anyone as pushy, aggressive and strangely girly in a non-girly way as Maka. If she is with some guy, it's not gunna last cuz that jerk's not you. But if it's a chick, I think you're screwed."

Soul looked at the street, hands stuffed in his pockets. "If she's into girls, I never had a chance anyway. Besides, why the hell are we talking about this when I've got a date with a hot girl?"

"It's not going to be a girl, dude. You're going to be disappointed." Black Star pushed the door open and Soul stepped inside and froze.

There. There waiting on the dance platform was a girl watching the high score board, twirling her red-brown braided hair around her finger. He turned to Black Star who had stopped to stare as well.

She was petite but had proportional curves in all the right places. She wore a yellow tank top who's end disappeared under a blue short sleeved half jacket that was mostly unzipped and stopped before her ribs did. Her freckled midsection was flawless, leading into hips that were hugged by a blue skirt. The loose slightly ruffled and flowy fabric would be perfect for dancing. Soul could practically imagine it swishing around those thighs which were modestly hidden by black spandex shorts that stopped half way to her knees. Her calves were hidden under yellow and black stripped knee highs and her feet appropriately tucked into sneakers in yellow and white.

Finally blinking Soul grabbed Black Star's arm, pulling him closer to whisper loudly "I told you she'd be a she!"

"You dunno if that's her until you ask her her name." He shoved Soul forwards, perhaps a little too hard because Soul ended up stumbling forward, catching the edge of the Omnimix with his hand to keep from falling. His eyes followed again up her beautiful legs, along her smooth, speckled stomach till they reached her surprised face.

Maka's, or BPM's first reaction was to hit him for staring, but she soon realized he was staring. Not in that are-you-crazy way that she was used to, but in a way she had seen boys stare at other girls. Never, _never_ had she thought she'd ever receive that kind of look, much less from _Soul_. It was strange. _It was nice_.

"Er, Sorry." Soul quickly stood up right, trying his best to play off his embarrassment and nervousness. "I tripped over something _small_ back there." With a tiny glance over his shoulder, Soul caught sight of Black Star shaking his fist at him for the comment.

"It's fine." She swallowed quickly. "Are you Soul?" Of course he was, it was so strange to ask! But this was a part to act. Just one more line closer to running out of there. She watched him scratch his head, the embarrassment in his expression bleeding into his tone.

"Yea, but I'm nothing like that letter, I swear. My idiot friend-"

"I've seen your name on the score board." She put her finger on the screen but couldn't look away from him. He was nervous, she could feel it radiating off of him. Cool, laid back, uninterested, apathetic, unmovable, un-phaseable, lazy Soul could hardly hold still. And she had made him feel this way, simply from how she looked? There was no way he'd ever be like this around her as Maka, no way he'd look at her with those eyes like that. Studying her, appreciating her appearance, _noticing_ her physically. It almost felt powerful to be in this sort of position.

Relief spread over Soul when she mentioned the Omnimix. "Yea, but I don't own as many songs as you." He smiled, stepping onto the platform.

He had admitted her dominance of something without sarcasm or boredom? She could hardly believe her ears. She had to say something or risk seeming strange. "They're just beginner and light songs. It's not much to brag about."

"It's still impressive."

Impressive? She couldn't help a smile and his grew at the sight of it. It looked so good on him. When had been the last time she had seen Soul smile that brightly? Warmth spread over her, turning into color that stained her freckled cheeks pink.

"What should I call you?" His words brought her thoughts back around to the situation at hand.

"Oh, well, actually..." When that smile of his began to fade, the words Maka had planned on saying disappeared in her mouth. How could she just leave now? He'd mope for days and anything she'd say would be brushed off since she was still engaged in a fictional relationship of her own.

Besides, as BPM who knows what kind of stuff she could learn? She could find out what he thought of Maka, and what he truly thought about their partnership. She could play DDR and not worry about hiding it from anyone, she might even get to flirt with a few guys and feel really really attractive, maybe even sexy. Most importantly she might be able to use a break from being Maka. Maka was boring and plain and BPM was anything but. It would be educational either way and if things got out of hand, BPM could always just disappear.

"I'm BPM, but you can call me Bee for short."

"It's cool to meet you, Bee." Soul offered her his hand to shake. This was it. It'd be official and there'd be no going back. Maka, Bee swallowed and shook his hand.

"It's cool to meet you too, Soul."

Ok, calm down, Soul. Yea, she was a girl and not just any girl but a cute one that obviously loved the same game he did. Who knows what kind of music she was into or-wait he was staring again. Soul quickly looked to the machine's screen before pulling out a fist full of quarters from his pocket.

"So, are you up for a round?" That was a stupid question, of course she was. She was dressed very nicely to play, she waited for him here on the machine, of course she wanted to play. Stupid, stupid stupid, how uncool!

"I don't usually play with other people around, but sure." Her voice was so nice, real sweet. Soul glanced back at her and when he saw an encouraging grin on her face, he let out a slow exhale and fed the machine the two dollars for two player.

He couldn't believe he was about to play a round of DDR, on a date, with a pretty girl who wasn't even part of Shibusen.

She couldn't believe she was about to play a round of DDR, out in the open where anyone could see her mess up or succeed, next to Soul.

"Ladies pick first." He moved from the selection arrows and Bee scrolled through, stopping at a medium paced song with an up beat tone.

"I do, I do, I do." She smiled, glancing at him.

"A-alight." Soul was familiar with this song. Not that it was hard by any means, but the beginners that would normally play before he and Black Star would get their turn would play it, so he knew the words. No, it didn't, couldn't mean anything. She must have picked it because she liked those sorts of songs. She probably liked Butterfly and Golden Sky as well. There wasn't anything to it. But still, as the happy intro started and Soul got ready with the heavy set of arrows about to begin on his side and the light set on her's. It made his soul a little antsy...

"_Oh the days when we just played, back in school just me and you. But I can't forget you now. What am I supposed to do?"_

Bee paid no mind to the lyrics. She hardly heard the words. While Soul was busy trying to maybe impress her with his smooth moves, she was busy trying not to miss one perfect. Her concentration drowned out even the melody. All there was was the count, the bpms and the predictable patterns the arrows would make. Her combos were guides, her points the road. There was no music, and therefor no dancing in her play.

"_We can be more than friends. Do you know I'm here for you? 'Cuz you're so easy to love, when you smile the sky turns blue!"_

Soul glanced over to watch Bee stomp the arrows with jerky motions, and rather than surprise him, it kinda broke his heart a little. This was such a nice, easy, catchy song. How could someone make it so mechanical? Was she missing the point?

"_I do, I do, I do, do I do love you and do you, do you, do you do you love me too?"_

Once the song ended, Soul turned to her. "Did you have fun?"

"Yep." She smiled up at him.

"Really? It didn't look like you were having fun."

"It's not cool to make fun of beginners." Bee crossed her arms and turned around, wondering if maybe she was acting a bit too much like herself, but before she could think about it too much, he gently put a hand on her shoulder.

"No, I mean your expression. Your brow was furrowed and you had a frown on. Did you not really like the song?"

The song? Their scores timed out and the screen went back to the song selection wheel and replayed the sample of it. If it hadn't she might have used the wrong adjective. "Of course I liked it. It's cute."

"Would you mind if I watched you play a song?" He leaned against the red bar and Bee's cheeks flushed red.

"Watch? Why would you just want to watch?" This was a mistake! Such a big mistake, he was seeing right through her! Maka, Bee looked around as if to figure out the best exit to head for.

"Well, I play a lot and maybe if I watch you play I could help give you pointers to getting to the standard level songs."

Oh Standard. Her heart fluttered at the idea of putting her name on one of those pink colored songs. They were the next level of difficulty and held mysteries such as triplet sets, off beat steps and the treacherous jump-step songs that would relentlessly go from jumps, to a step, into jumps on and on. It sounded simple, but it hurt in no time if you weren't ready.

If he could maybe come up with a hint or two then it would be worth it, even though the idea of Soul watching her play was unnerving. Mostly because her thoughts floated back to the first time she had seen _him_ dance. Wait, had he just danced like that next to her and she had no idea because she was so wrapped up in her perfect score?

"Fine, but only if I get to watch you play a song on your own." After all, it would be safe to watch. She was Bee, not Maka. There would be no harm done.

"Deal." He nodded.

Bee chose There You'll Be. It was faster paced and one she had passed recently. Again Soul fidgeted just a bit at the song choice. Was she picking them on purpose?

"_In my dreams I'll always see you soar above the sky. In my arms there'll always be a place for you for all my life. There you'll be."_

He watched her dance, if you could call it dancing, and again that expression of determination spread over her face. He had just met Bee, but the songs she was picking still...oh. These were songs about people who had been together for a while who cared for one another. And that painfully determined expression on her face... Somehow he was finding Maka in the places that were as far removed from her as possible. Song lyrics, a dancer who was kind enough to spend an afternoon with him...

"_When I think back on these times and the dreams we left behind, I'll be glad because I was blessed to get to have you in my life. When I look back on these days, I'll look and see your face. You were right there for me."_

But why? Why was he thinking of Maka at a time like this? It wasn't as though he was cheating on her, they were never in a relationship to begin with. She was probably off with that Greg guy doing who knows what, god knows where! This was stupid. Stupid Black Star and his stupid talk before they got here. What the hell was his deal anyway? It wasn't as though Maka liked him, hell she barely even talked to him anymore. He had to _schedule_ meals with her now. She didn't, wouldn't, couldn't and would never be interested because damn it, if it would happen it'd have happened by now! She'd moved on, he should to.

"_In my dreams I'll always see you soar above the sky. In my arms there'll always be a place for you for all my life. I'll keep a part of you with me, and everywhere I am, there you'll be. And everywhere I am, there you'll be."_

Had Soul _wanted_ it have happened though? Had he wanted Maka to like him? He was left with that question when the song ended and Bee looked over at him.

"So how did I do?"

Soul shook his head. He was super lucky to be here with this girl. He wasn't about to blow it thinking about stuff that didn't matter. Whether he had wanted it or not, the fact remained it would never happen. That decided he managed a small grin for his current date.

"You did ok."

"I got a Double A! I think that's more than ok." She pointed to the screen but Soul still didn't look convinced.

"Here, maybe if you watch me you'll see." He scrolled through the songs on the screen. Now, he could pick a song to go with the theme, but Soul decided to stop dwelling on it. It was time to sway with a more up beat song. Kind Lady, but on Standard.

"Wait, you accidentally put it on the wrong difficulty." She moved to try to move the cursor back for him but Soul waved his hand.

"No, I did that on purpose. It's easier to dance if you have less arrows to hit."

Dance? Oh he meant dance, as in with the music...as in how he had danced that first time. Bee stepped from the platform to get a better look and Soul stretched, a little of his side showing as the fabric shifted upwards. The song started, a funky melody that he had already began to bob his head to before the arrows even graced the screen. Bee tried to prepare herself.

"_Looking for love, he knew that his heart was healing. He'd been hurt too much to try again. But when she caught his eye, ain't no man could fight the feeling. He knew he had to try to let love in."_

Even though Soul had on a few more layers than last time, the effect was just as strong. Bee felt her face heat up as she watched the sway of his hips. She couldn't help but to notice the way his shoulders would dip, his body would turn. The arrows were easy, he was even missing one or two. To Soul the score didn't matter. It was about the music. It was always about the music.

A strange question rose in her mind. If she was watching a monkey like Black Star dance to this song, would it feel like this? Would it make her cheeks hot, her pulse pick up? No, certainly not. So what did that mean? No...her mouth suddenly went dry. Could she possibly be..._attracted_ to Soul _physically_? The question brought a hand to her chest to rest over her pounding heart.

It wasn't that she had a thing for his lazy eyes or his sharp teeth or thick mane of white fluff. She'd never have given DDR any attention, or cared about going to all these lengths if it was about how he looked holding still. If it hadn't been that initial shock that day in the arcade, Maka never would have noticed the machine. She'd never have been blackmailed, she'd never have played, she'd never be here. It was all the fault of his hips. It was the doing of his legs, his arms. So it came down to this truth: she was attracted to the way he moved. Utterly fascinated, captivated and well...

But! Once the song would end, he'd still be stupid, sloppy Soul. Right?

But what if this wasn't the arcade? What if it was some club? Would he dance the same...would they dance together? Close together in a crowd of people with no space between..Would he move like that in other places..in other ways? Maybe she'd understand music _then._

"So did you figure out what you were doing wrong?" He asked and Bee blinked, her face red at her recent thoughts. He had stopped dancing, why was her heart still racing?

"Um, no, not really. I'm sorry, I was busy watching you dance, I wasn't paying attention to the screen." This was wrong on so many levels. What on earth had come over her? "I need to go to the bathroom." Before Soul could say anything, Bee made a b-line straight to the girls' restroom.

* * *

Once safe behind the door, Bee rested against the wall and took a few deep breaths, soothed by the coolness of the painted cinder block wall. "Get a hold of yourself, Maka."

Those thoughts had traveled to bad, bad places. Places as almost inappropriate as when he had pushed his chest forward and rolled the motion down his body. Just where the hell did he learn to move like that anyway? Feeling this way was wrong. It wasn't civilized, not right, not appropriate and really disturbing when applied to him. It wasn't like he was ugly or anything, but he was her partner, or like some weird older brother.

No, that wasn't truthful. He wasn't like a brother exactly, but somehow didn't seem to fit the simple label of friend either. With a sigh, she moved to the sink and cupped her hands under the water. If these thoughts kept up outside of the arcade, or worse, as Maka, there'd be no way to continue this. Bee would have to disappear. Maka would have to be careful not to put herself in situations where she might see him do _that_ again.

But it had been nice. To watch. To feel that way, and even better to do it without the worry of repercussions. As Bee she could do anything and no have it hurt or endanger her partnership. Still, the uncontrolled, unrefined reacting frightened her to some degree. It was then that Kim slipped into the bathroom.

"Hey, how's it going?" Kim asked. Bee splashed water on her own face to help cool it and reached for a paper towel, dabbing it dry.

"I. It's weird."

Kim nodded and took a deep breath, reciting the speech she had practiced full of stuff she hadn't wanted to say, but knew was best. "Maka, I think you need to face what you're scared about and open up to Soul. He cares about you and would never hurt you. He's a good guy, right? So you shouldn't be scared."

Bee couldn't help her frightened expression, gripping the side of the sink a bit. "Why in the world are you saying this?"

Kim fidgeted, worried Maka might get mad at her and she had seen what happened to people Maka was mad at. "Well I was watching the date and I think, as your friend, I just needed to tell you that it's, you know, the best thing in the long run for your partnership with Soul. Once I stopped being scared and opened up, it helped my own relationship."

Had she been that obvious? Bee turned and looked back at the mirror. Of course she was obvious, obvious enough that Ox had noticed that first day and went to the trouble of filming her. It was true that her own reaction to what was seeping into her thoughts kind of unnerved her, but Maka hadn't thought of it as being afraid of _him_. Just afraid of her feelings. She shouldn't be scared of Soul, he'd never do anything bad to a girl that might show interest in him. And Kim said once she had opened up it had helped her relationship, she must be talking about her relationship with Ox, right?

There was nothing to be upset, nervous, or afraid of. This was normal and in the long run would help if she'd just open up more. Bee nodded and turned back to Kim. "Thanks. I think you're right."

"Yea?" That sure was easy. Kim sighed in relief. "That's great. I'm glad you decided to do the right thing." She had expected Maka to fuss or need time to think before considering telling the truth to Soul, like she had _obviously_ meant in her speech. "Well good luck!" She gave her a quick hug before leaving.

* * *

"Man, she was so into you just now." Black Star shook Soul's shoulders. "You shoulda seen her staring at you, biting her lip in that 'I'm-thinking-dirty-nasty-things' kinda way! You've got her in the bag!"

"Are you serious? She just ran away." Soul motioned to the bathroom. "The back exit is that way. She's probably bailed or something. I think I might have come off like a know it all."

Black Star let him go to cross his arms and smirk. "You do spend a lot of time around the queen of know it alls, but no, I guarantee you, she's over there changing into a pair of dry undies! You so owe me for setting you up on this thing."

Soul sighed and scratched his head. "If she comes back, then yea. If she doesn't, then we'll call it even. You get to watch me go up in flames and I get to say I was right about her being a girl."

"Ok-hey! I was right, I'm always right!" Black Star jabbed Soul's shoulder. "Man I hope you have protection. I can think of a way for you to show your appreciation later!" That said he hopped from the platform, offered a quick thumbs up before leaving the arcade.

Maka tried her best not to notice Black Star's quick exit since Bee wouldn't know who he is, the lucky girl. She just offered a small pleasant smile. "Sorry about that."

"It's nothing." Soul smiled. "So, do you still wanna play?"

"You promised me tips, remember?"

"Right." Soul fed the machine just one dollar since he intended to just coach. "When I watched you dance last time, I noticed you really think about where you're going to step."

"Who doesn't think about where they're going to step?" It seemed a silly question. "I just learned not to return to middle after each step."

"Well, when you think about where to place the next foot, it takes longer to react. You have to just turn off your brain and just move."

Bee just stared at him at that. No wonder Soul and Black Star excelled at something like this. If anyone could turn off their brains, it was them. "I can't just turn off my brain."

"Sure you can." Soul grinned, choosing a simple song: Golden Sky, setting it on the Light difficulty. "You just have to trust the music."

The music? She couldn't remember a time ever when she had played and paid any mind to the music. It was distracting. _He_ was distracting and now there wasn't much of an escape. The song was already beginning. Her name appeared at the bottom as the current high score holder and then left, leaving her alone with a score to live up to.

"_Welcome to the wonderland, a place for you and me. If you treat me right then maybe you will have a key. This world is very special and I'll show it just for you. All you have to say is 'Yes, I do'"_

The arrows were still few and far between on this low difficulty, but they seemed so hard to grab when she was forced to think about the music. That's when he began to count out the time for her. His voice over the asian-influenced and overly cutsey music helped somehow. '_Soul's a good guy. You should trust him.'_

By the end of the song, Bee feared the worst. She had awkwardly missed so many steps trying to 'turn her brain off.' It was simply something she couldn't do! If she could Maka knew she'd be in half the troubles she found herself in. The screen showed a pathetic D and she covered her face in embarrassment.

"That wasn't so bad." He chuckled, hand on her shoulder. He hadn't laughed? He hadn't picked at it, not a single bad thing to say?

"Not that bad? I almost failed." The words tasted awful in her mouth.

"It's hard the first time you try something new."

She stared up at him with wide eyes, seeing clearly his genuine encouraging smile that matched his sweet words. Wait, no he was being really nice to her because she was a new cute girl. Bee quickly looked back to the screen. "So, what should I do to help me turn off my brain?"

"I think that might have been a hard concept to start out with. When you start getting into the triple sets in Standard, you're going to need to be able to move around the platform more. Don't be scared to turn your body. You don't always need to have your chest facing the machine."

"So, I should just pick a song then?" She was starting to get frustrated. Not being able to do something, or improve quickly bothered the hell outta Maka and his descriptions were so vague! Before he could answer, she just picked a new song. Only You, on Light of course.

"_Only you can make me feel so true. Whatever ever I can do, it's because of you. Only you, can make me feel so true. I'll never ever be so blue as long as I have you!"_

As the song began, Soul slipped in the narrow space between Bee and the red bar at the back end of the platform. It would be impossible to explain to her, and demonstrating wouldn't work as well as this. He just prayed she wouldn't get mad. Gently, Soul put his hands on her hips gently guiding them to turn or move to any direction other than center.

Bee had gasped slightly when she had felt his hands on her hips, his thumbs brushing against the skin above the hem of her skirt. She had at once wanted to yell, but the shock stole the words from her throat. After the initial surprise, it was a little nice. One less thing to have to worry about, and soon Maka found herself trusting his guidance and ended up forgetting about the movement of her body over the pad all together. There were the arrows, the firm, reassuring presence of his hands and the soft counting he kept doing and somehow, somewhere the beat of the bass drum had snuck in.

The song was far too short and when it ended, she honestly didn't care too much about the letter grade. It had been fun! Just the actual playing was fun, when before it had been a means to getting to the thrill of the grade. Without thinking, she turned her head to look over her shoulder. It had been easy to forget how close Soul had to stand in order to help and she found her face less than an inch from his.

"I..." She had began, but those radiant red eyes...his hands still resting there on her hips, partly on cloth, partly on skin. A fog had settled over her thoughts and for the first time, Maka's brain truly turned off. With half lidded eyes, she had begun to close the space between his slightly parted lips and her's.

"Your moves are AMAZING!" The machine screamed, ruining the moment and causing him to let her go and turn his face to the screen.

"See? You got a B this time." Soul moved back over to his side of the platform and stuffed his hands into his pockets, trying his best to look cool. She had almost kissed him! This cute girl who didn't yell at him, or hit him when he touched her. One who didn't bail on him when she could have, one who didn't mind his suggestions. He felt good, he felt _cool_ and looking at her, he was feeling hopeful she was feeling the same.

"Yea, I guess I did." What on earth had happened just a second ago? Did she almost...? Bee could hardly think as she listened to the clicking of the song selection wheel, unable to get her heart to calm down. Absentmindedly, she just picked a song. My Summer Love, on Light.

Soul elected to stay on his side of the platform this time. "Just try to do everything we just talked about."

The tropical themed song began and Maka tried to recall just what they had talked about. Moving.. oh yea. Hips. Her hips, his hands. His eyes..his lips.

"Bee?" His voiced pulled her out of her trance and she found herself with only half a song bar left. She had missed the first few arrows!

"_Started as boys and girls one day making moves. He spoke and then we knew something very new. Sodas to tropical juice, I knew it was true. Tonight the perfect moon will shine on."_

She didn't do bad. Unable to even slow her thoughts, Maka couldn't dream of achieving that brain turned off moment he had mentioned while dancing, but at least she was able to move a bit more freely over the platform. It was almost as I she could still feel his hands placed so strongly on her hips. In the end she earned a C, but still smiled especially when he had clapped for her.

"That was great. You moved a lot more and it looked a bit more natural. Did you have more fun?"

"Yea, actually." She blushed a bit. He had been right and for some reason it had been easy to admit it in this current circumstance.

"Do you wanna keep playing, or do you want to catch something to eat before the movie?"

Oh yea, the letter had mentioned a movie, didn't it? And in all her anxiousness, Maka hadn't been hungry during her lunch period, but now she was famished.

Happily, she hopped off the platform. "Let's go eat!"

* * *

The meal they shared was nothing at all like the quiet, awkward meals they had scheduled with one another as Soul and Maka. The conversation was bright with laughter and anecdotes about Dance Dance Revolution. They shared what they liked about it, what they had trouble with and Bee listened eagerly as he talked about pivots and happily complained about green hold arrows. There was laughter and good food. It was..._amazing._

And in a lot of ways it was like she was rediscovering Soul all over, through the eyes of someone else. He was pretty funny, sometimes without trying, goofy, dorky and weird when he had something insightful to say. Until finally, the obvious questions started.

"So, you go to the general high school, right?" He asked over his plate of coconut shrimp.

"Yea, Death City General High." She nodded quickly before taking a sip of her soda.

"Do you know a guy named Greg Myers?" Bee's hand froze at that, the glass almost back on the table.

"Yea, he's in my class. Why?"

"My..." Soul searched for the right words to describe Maka with, without having to talk too much about Shibusen. This was their first date, after all, he didn't want to get to the complicated stuff. "My friend dates him and I was just wondering if he's a cool guy."

Soul was that worried about her? Bee gave him a small smile and placed her glass on the table. "He's nice. I've heard a lot of good things about her. He's smart and real sweet." her eyes drifted to the reflection of his relieved face in her soda.

"Good."

"What is your friend like?" It would be a natural question to ask, and honestly, she was dying to hear him say something horribly honest about her real self.

Soul took a moment to choose his words again, looking up at the blue light fixture over their booth. "Maka is, well, she's a handful."

"A _handful_?" She blurted out before biting her lip.

"Yea, I mean. It's complicated." Soul felt this was going in the wrong direction. The last thing he'd want is for Bee to get the wrong idea. "I don't like her or anything. We're just friends. I don't think we'd ever really match up like that." He chuckled nervously. When Bee flinched at his words, he leaned forward and touched her hand. "I promise, I'm not the type of guy that would lead someone on or two-time."

She looked at his hand, and then to his face, feeling like someone had punched her in the stomach. "You don't like her at all?"

"No. We're friends, that's all, I promise. We're roommates too, but I hardly see her anymore. She's always with Greg." For a second, she could have sworn she caught sight of loneliness or perhaps sadness in his eyes. Whatever it had been, it disappeared to affection as he focused back onto her freckled face. "I'd really like to get to know more about _you_."

"I like to keep a bit of mystery." Bee took her hand from his to rest it on her lap. "What movie are we going to see?"

* * *

It was a question they hadn't been able to answer, even when the two of them stood in front of the movie theater. The marquee outside showed the typical horror, the typical sappy romantic comedy, the typical action movie. But the two of them had met over music, so it was only right to pick the musical remake. Soul stepped up the ticket box office and asked for two tickets to see Chicago.

It helped a great deal that he really loved this musical. It was all about jazz, filled with cool suits, dark, smokey rooms and amazing piano work. It held a good amount of humor, a little bit of sexiness and lots of action. Bee, however had no idea what she was getting into.

They found a spot together in the middle of the theater with only drinks in hand since they had just had dinner. It was dark and for a few quick moments Maka relaxed within herself. Soon she'd have a movie to watch and she could take her mind off of Soul and everything. As soon as the film started though, that idea went right out the window.

Maka had listened to this type of music before and while alright, it was different here. It oozed sexuality in the opening number All That Jazz. Between the frantic making out between Fred and Roxie, and the last musical number of Velma, the garters, the dancing, it made her shift in her seat. It was so so _him._

It was a film about the desire for fame and attention. It was about getting away with murder and about America in the 1920's and Maka could appreciate the plot. She could take it apart intellectually and that helped to truly bridge the gap into listening and truly hearing the music as told in context of the story. If it had been any other musical though, it wouldn't have meant quite so much. He was sharing some of himself with Bee without even saying anything. Soul hadn't needed to rattle off his past, he didn't need to go into detail about anything. His movie-lit expressions said everything. His attention was glued on the screen, soda left undisturbed since it had started. She did her best to just pay attention to the movie.

She had almost lost herself into the movie again when she heard him softly humming along to the song Mr. Cellophane, as if he knew and loved this one song in particular.

"_Cellophane, Mister Cellophane shoulda been my name. Mister Cellophane 'cause you can look right through me, walk right by me and never know I'm there."_

After the movie, the melody of that one song stuck with her, despite all the other amazing pieces in the show. It had been such a sad, moving song. It wasn't until the humid night air hit her the Bee remembered what was going on.

"Tonight's been awesome." Soul smiled at her. "I can't thank you enough for coming out when you really didn't have to."

"No, I'm glad I did." She smiled back. It was the truth. The idea that this would be educational had been sorely underestimated. Maka would need months to sort through all the revelations from tonight.

"Do you wanna do this again sometime?"

Again? She should say no, she really really should. But...if she told him no, that happy expression would fade away. She had had so much fun and for the first time had actually connected to music in new ways. It would be too soon to pull the plug.

"Sure. How about this weekend at six?"

"Sounds great. I'll meet you at the arcade?"

"Yea. That'll work." Bee nodded.

"Cool. How about I walk you home?"

Home? Oh, no. "Ah no, that's ok. Remember that mystery thing I mentioned before? It'd be ruined if I let you see where I live."

"Ah ok." He seemed just a tiny bit disappointed but quickly shook it off. "It was great meeting you, Bee."

Maka swallowed and did her best to smile through the words "It was nice to meet you too, Soul." A quiet awkwardness filled in after that. This was when they were supposed to kiss goodnight, right? Was that supposed to happen on the first date? Maka wasn't sure, it wasn't as though she had much prior experience.

Since Bee hadn't been upset when he had guided her hips during DDR, or seemed to mind the few times he had made contact, Soul decided to take a chance and leaned in kissing her on the cheek. It was just a quick, innocent peck. "Goodnight."

Bee raised a hand to touch her cheek which was now blushed a deep red. "Y-yea. Goodnight." She stood there, even when he backed up, still smiling at her and then slipped into the crowd going home from the theater. Soul had kissed her. _Kissed._

* * *

Soul couldn't help but to whistle as he walked home. The night had been flawless! He even had a second date lined up. She was smart and pretty and loved music and nice and laid back and just. Perfect. What more could he ask for? The apartment was empty and dark, of course, and for once it didn't bother him at all. Soul put up his jacket and plopped down on the couch, stretching over it, basking in the feeling of victory. He was utterly reaffirmed in all his coolness.

It was maybe half an hour later when Maka came in, blond pigtails and Spartoi uniform. She paused at the door when she saw him laying there on the couch. "Shouldn't you be in bed?"

"Wouldn't be able to sleep if I tried." He had the biggest smile on his face. It took everything in her to look annoyed.

"So I take it your date went well?"

"It was perfect. I think I'm in love."

Love? He had said it so simply, so easily it still made Maka's heart stutter. It wasn't that anyone could possibly fall in love after just one date, he was just throwing the word around. And. Even if he was, it wasn't like he loved Maka. He loved Bee and the two were as different from one another as night and day.

Maka locked the door, using that sobering truth to fuel her dry tone. "Don't stay up too late, we've got school tomorrow."

Once in her room, Maka locked her door and began to get ready for bed. She pulled the blue and yellow panties from her pocket and frowned at them. This had been a mistake. She took them to her desk and pulled out a pair of scissors, moving the fabric between the blades. In her gut, Maka felt anger begging her to snip the enchanted panties into scrap. When she realized that it was actually jealousy, she put the scissors down on the desk.

She was jealous of Bee. For her body. For the goofy love sick and utterly satisfied expression on Soul's face. Maka raised a hand to her cheek. Had his lips even touched her, or was it stopped by the disgusting layer of magic that had hidden her true self away? And if she was jealous of those things, did it mean she liked Soul? Had she _wanted_ him to kiss her, lips to her real cheek?

Things were so complicated. Maka held her head. He wouldn't have felt that way, he wouldn't have done those things, or said all those nice words if she had been her. He probably wouldn't even dance that way if he knew she had been watching. Soul had said so himself, he didn't like Maka at all in that way. And why would he when he had someone like Bee? She wanted to tear the panties to bits and let Bee die away into the night. But the truth remained. If she ever wanted to feel that way, to see him look at her that way, to hear him speak to her that way, kiss her that way, Bee would have to stay.

Even with the lights off and under the covers, Maka could hardly sleep. She heard him walk down the hallway towards his own bedroom, whistling Mr Cellophane And he had somehow twisted the once sad melody into something so light. It just brought the stark sad memory into sharpness in her mind, and for the first time she trully felt the melody and lyrics together touch her soul. In the lonely darkness of her room, Maka curled up in a ball under her sheets and wrapped her arms around her narrow chest.

Softly, she whispered before falling asleep "You can look right through, walk right by me, and never know I'm there..."

...End of Round One

Please Insert More Coins...


End file.
